IF the credits to his debut album are anything to go by, Harper Simon’s mobile phone contacts list must read like a musical Who’s Who.

Cover artwork by Tracey Emin, song credits which include dad Paul Simon and stepmum Carrie Fisher, musicians who feature Sean Lennon and legendary drummer Steve Gadd – not to mention a team of legendary session players from Nashville who have worked with the likes of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.

“It was great to work with all those people who contributed to the record, it was a real pleasure,” says 37-year-old Harper,

“There were so many special people; all those Nashville guys, I had admired their playing on Bob Dylan records and Elvis and The Byrds; other people like Steve Nieve and Marc Ribot and Steve Gadd, I had looked up to those guys and even people like Petra Haden and Inara George and Eleni Mandell who are my friends from my generation.

“There were a lot of hurdles and obstacles – it wasn’t always necessarily fun for me – but to work with that calibre of talent was fun, an honour and a privilege.”

Of his dad’s contribution – other than on the songs themselves, Harper adds: “We did talk about process and techniques but mostly I was just making my record and he came in and contributed to a couple of songs and he would focus on stuff when he had the chance.”

The self-titled, ten-track album is the result of a lifetime in music and showbusiness – from Harper’s appearances alongside his dad on Sesame Street (aged four) and as a teenager during his Graceland tour.

“The songs were all written over a two-year period, but l keep re-writing and changing things and then the album sat around on the shelf for a year while it was waiting to get a release date, so actually some of the songs go back to over three years ago now. I wasn’t ready before but I figured I better get ready, better just do it but I wasn’t really prepared.

“Maybe that’s why I took a long time.

“Nobody was waiting around for a Harper Simon record really,” he says. “I mean, I wasn’t being offered any deals or anything; nobody was managing me or developing me, it was just something that I always wanted to do and I figured at a certain point I would really regret it if I didn’t give it a go seriously so I just figured I’d better make my three to four albums now cos you can’t just do one if you’re going to have a career and maybe I’ll get to two more if I’m lucky.

“I just try to make sure that the songs had some kind of truth and emotional resonance and were unpretentious in language and subject matter,” says Harper, who comes to play the Flapper tomorrow. “Honest and somewhat revealing and I tried to use language that was interesting.”

The Flapper gig will be Harper’s second visit to Birmingham in 12 months, having played at last year’s English Originals festival at the Town Hall.

It’s also a return to the country where Harper lived for several years.

“I played at this Nick Drake tribute show at the Town Hall and it was beautiful,” he recalls. “It was a great show and it was a really good line-up – Stuart from Belle and Sebastian, Graham Coxon... we did one at the Barbican as well, but that one in Birmingham was really the special one.”

“I still miss being in the UK all the time,” he adds.

“It’s possible I could come back to live there. I really love it there and I have great friends; I miss everything – the architecture and my friends and the use of language. I just miss the culture, the beauty of the cities and the countryside.”